How Al Pacino Inspired 'Sopranos' Star Michael Imperioli to Become an Actor

Michael Imperioli cemented his status as an iconic Italian American actor with his role as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos. Years before he joined the Emmy-winning series, when he was a fledgling actor, Imperioli got to work with legends like Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci (along with his future Sopranos co-star Lorraine Bracco) in Martin Scorsese's beloved masterpiece Goodfellas.

Getting to work alongside De Niro was a dream come true for Imperioli. In a new interview with The New Yorker, he explained that he was forever changed after seeing movies like Midnight Cowboy, Dog Day Afternoon, and Apocalypse Now when he was a kid.

"Those actors, like [Marlon] Brando and Pacino and Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, those actors really f--king inspired me," he admitted. "Getting to work with some of them, which eventually happened, I was always pinching myself. I did a movie with Jon Voight [The Five People You Meet in Heaven] and De Niro [Goodfellas]."

As for Pacino, Imperioli reflected on interacting with the Oscar winner when he was preparing for his role as Shylock in 2004's The Merchant of Venice. "I never did a movie with Pacino, but I rehearsed with him once in his house—Merchant of Venice, with him and two other actors. That was surreal," he said, going on to heap praise on the veteran actor.

"Probably out of any actor, he was the one that made me want to be an actor," Imperioli confessed. "I felt like I was playing basketball with Michael Jordan. He was, like, 20 steps ahead of me. I’ll never forget it."

Imperioli went on to describe just how inspiring Pacino's acting skills are, even when simply running through lines at his home.

"He just became Shylock in front of my eyes. It was very strange. Everything about him, like, physically, he changed. The color of his skin changed," he remembered. "It was very, like, alchemical. It was magic. It was something great actors do, really."

Here's hoping the two actors can appear alongside each other on screen one day.